Why does my if-else statements drip over towards the third else? - c++

Question

I'm trying to get an idea of how this control syntax works.
Note: this is part of my int.main function:
while(cin >> Options){
if(Options == 1){ //If I enter '1' here it will output: "aHi.Else."
cout << "a";
}else{
cout << "hi";
}
if(Options == 2){ //If I enter '2' here it will output: "hiaElse."
cout << "a";
}else{
cout <<"Hi.";
}
if(Options == 3){ //If I enter '3' here it will output: "hiHi.a"
cout << "a";
}else{
cout << "Else." << endl;
}
}
Why is it dripping over to else's and stuff? What's wrong with the syntax? I'm confused?
How am I supposed to use multiple if statements without else's included? Can you give an example?

Answer 1

The ifs are not dependent on each other, so if Options is anything but 1, it will execute the else branch of the first if statement, even if Options is 2 or 3. The same applies to the other ifs. Since Options can only be 1 or 2 or 3 (or something else), you will always get the else output for the other ifs.
You can chain else and if if you want to link multiple conditions to each other. In the example below, the last else only executes if Options is neither 1, nor 2, nor 3.
while(cin >> Options){
if(Options == 1){
cout << "a";
}
else if(Options == 2){
cout << "b";
}
else if(Options == 3){
cout << "c";
}
else{
cout << "Hello";
}
}
or using a switch statement:
while(cin >> Options){
switch(Options){
case 1:
cout << "a";
break;
case 2:
cout << "b";
break;
case 3:
cout << "c";
break;
default:
cout << "Hello";
}
}